Blown Billie

[tech71]

Has anyone had Bilstein front struts overhauled?

Franzi's HDs were installed in 98, one of them now is soft/mushy and wont extend fully, also incriminating oil in the strut housing.

Seems a waste to chuck it but cost to overhaul is pretty high.

 

Services

DELTAVEE.NET

---

authorized Bilstein rebuild and revalve specialist and new parts suspension system distributor: Delta Vee Motorsports LLC in Kalamazoo, MI 888-407-5122

 

Thoughts? Leads? Links?

Thanks in advance, Mikey

[visionaut]

No idea of current rates, but Bilstein USA has a direct rebuild service.

 

Have you tried contacting them?

 

[Mike Self]

Dunno when they stopped, but once upon a time Bilstein shocks and struts had a lifefime warranty.  A set I bought in 1981--one of the struts failed sometime in the early  90s and they sent me a new pair...worth an inquiry.

 

mike

[John76]

38 minutes ago, tech71 said:

HDs were installed in 98,

I installed mine in '81 ... BMWCCA local chapter group purchase.

Came with a lifetime warranty. Check to see if yours are covered before repairing or replacing.

John

Edited April 19, 2023 by John76
Correction spell check

[tech71]

Warranty is probably not an option since I traded for them with  Dave Lumbra.

They were lightly used.

Still, have not contacted Bilstein, in retrospect, should have done that first😉

 

[visionaut]

41 minutes ago, Mike Self said:

once upon a time Bilstein shocks and struts had a lifefime warranty.

Still do.

[TobyB]

Try it.  They may get you a new one(s)

 

t

 

[Einspritz]

The thing about having "older" Bilstein s rebuilt or revalved is the fact that some of the parts are nla. So in order to rebuild them any rebuilder must make an adapter or use all new shafts. I was quoted over $500 to do that by PSI. I then sent them to Bilstein in Southern California who did it fo less, but it took almost 9 months for them to match my specification ( which they had previously done twice) and they still didn't get it right.... Ok within 10% so that had to suffice.

 

Really poor service.

 

At the time all North Carolina submissions went to California.

 

So what to do?

 

If want standard shocks , buy new.

 

If you want special valving, buy new from someone like PSI and have them do it.

 

BTW, Bilstein only publishes the compression and rebound. They don't even KNOW the curves! And the owner of PSI was shocked that I wanted to see the full data. "No one ever asks for that".

 

A dark art this, but can be overcome by uh Engineering, math n stuff.

 

[TobyB]

...or even a casual interest in suspension performance.  

 

Crap, you can build a shock dyno out of an electric bicycle motor, 

a load cell, some sort of position sensor and an Arduino

and get repeatable relative numbers...

 

t

who has far more parts than energy these days.

[tech71]

Okay... I have apparently less than casual interest in shock performance, I just wanted to know if it was practical to have Bilsteins overhauled.

I dont like the Bilstein page, very impersonal, Maybe I will complete the forms to see if they can overhaul my struts but more likely I will just replace them. I get the sense that their hearts (maybe pocketbooks) are just not into it.

You know, in Aviation world, overhauling air/oil shock struts is commonplace.

I have done many, probably why I thought it would be a no brainer.

[Einspritz]

The fact is that 2002 struts are an infantisimal part of their business.

 

And while one would THINK as the manufacturer they could or would know everything about their products' performance. They do not, and really don't care.

 

It is what it is.

 

"Recently" I bought a new set for my M3. I then took them to PSI and paid $100.00 to have them tested and the curves generated (remember nobody does that, even for many race cars). From that, I can plug in the data in my suspension calculations to see how I need to change the valving to MY needs, not some settings determined by "some guy" (the "D" word comes to mind) who really hasn't modeled the cars suspension under acceleration, braking and cornering.

 

Otherwise "parts is parts"

 

Please reference the comment line at the bottom of Toby's posts........

 

[TobyB]

Sorry, Tech, I was implying that Bilstein doesn't care, not you.

 

We may be going about this all wrong-  the bike world still revalves and repressurizes

their forks, dicks around with preload, sets their compression and rebound

all over the place, etc. etc. etc.

So maybe we need to go visit the bike guys. 

The big problem I'm seeing is that most shocks these days are not disassemblable.

Koni crimps their 'competition' inserts now, and simply puts on a new can when they

'rebuild' them.  I haven't bought a new Bilstein shock in 2 decades, but I wouldn't be surprised

if Theissen does the same.

Likewise, what we need is vanishly soft- again, maybe it's time to build something out of 

bike parts.  Not that they're CHEAP, mind you...

When Aldan was doing the rear coilovers for the 

race car (they were very willing to valve and adjust, but likewise, didn't have a clear idea

of what I wanted) they said that what I was shooting for was way way softer than

what they usually do.  Coilovers in back have a high motion ratio, don't need much spring 

on the rear of a race car, and so forth...

 

I cut apart an old Sachs strut from the E39 the other week- inside the very sexy aluminum can was a stack

of VERY adjustable valving, with self- locking nuts, preload springs and valve discs that were

just BEGGING to be played with.  Except that I had to machine the top off of it to get it apart...

 

t

 

[steve k.]

Guy Ankeny used to be able to rebuild pretty much anything. I have not autcrossed in a while so I do not know if he still does things, but his suspension components were very good then. He is in Simi Valley, CA.   It might be worth a call. 

A.R.E. - Welcome!

GUYANKENY.READYHOSTING.COM

 

steve k.

[tech71]

2 hours ago, TobyB said:

Sorry, Tech, I was implying that Bilstein doesn't care, not you.

No worries at all here I'm good, I didn't think that.

I have a set of NOS HDs sitting on the shelf here, was planning on installing on Survivor later but Survivor is just fine for now riding around on KYBs.

Need to get Franzi's struts squared away now. so I can move on. Might as well get them off the shelf and put to use.

Edited April 21, 2023 by tech71

[mccusername]

Bilstein no longer rebuilds their shocks. They will refer you to Performance Shock in Sonoma. 
 

Long story but I dealt with Performance Shock recently and found their service poor and their prices shockingly high. 
 

I had the opposite experience with RE Suspension in North Carolina. They were super nice and much cheaper. 
 

https://www.resuspension.com/product-service